1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to an external airbag deployment method, which is implemented in a vehicle and is configured to predict an effective collision and deploy an external airbag at an exact time based on the results of the prediction, without causing a false operation.
In particular, the present invention relates to an external airbag deployment method, which determines all of the traction stability of a self vehicle, and a physical quantity, a collision probability, and collision avoidance possibility upon predicting a collision with another vehicle even if the deployment of the external airbag has been determined to some degree, and then finally deploys the external airbag, thus remarkably reducing the possibility of malfunctioning that may be a problem in the characteristics of the external airbag, with the result that the reliability of the system can be improved.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, an external airbag that is outwardly deployed from the front or rear side of a vehicle has been developed and presented as a technology for greatly improving the safety vehicles.
Basically, this technology is configured to deploy an external airbag by previously detecting and predicting a collision situation of a vehicle. However, this technology is problematic in that maximal shock absorption effects must be obtained by deploying the external airbag at an exact time, and in that system stability must be improved by correctly deploying the external airbag at a time point at which it must be deployed, and system reliability must be improved by preventing the airbag from being falsely deployed at a time point at which it must not be deployed.
Conventional technology disclosed in Korean Patent Application Publication No. KR10-2012-0013799 discloses “Method of controlling an airbag module using information before a collision.” The method of controlling an airbag module using information before a collision includes the first step of detecting pieces of information about an object located in front of a vehicle using the vehicle's ultrasonic sensor and radar sensor; the second step of comparing information about a distance to the object among the pieces of information about the object detected by the ultrasonic sensor with information about a distance to the object among the pieces of information about the same object detected by the radar sensor; the third step of selecting at least one of the information about the object detected by the ultrasonic sensor and the information about the same object detected by the radar sensor on the basis of the results of the comparison of the distance information, and determining whether the object is located in an area where there is a possibility that the object may collide with the vehicle, based on the selected information; and the fourth step of deploying an airbag module installed inside the vehicle, based on the results of the determination of whether the object is located in the area where there is a possibility that the object may collide with the vehicle.
However, even if the above-described control method is used, a precise control method capable of preventing false deployment and obtaining effective deployment by exactly determining collisions is not presented. Furthermore, even if the measurement performance of a sensor is insufficient, a data management method capable of supporting such measurement performance and then enabling maximally effective determination is not presented.
Finally, there is a further problem in that logic for definitely preventing false deployment by checking the validity of the need for deployment once again is not yet presented.
The information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.